


What You Won't Do For Love

by LateToThePartie



Series: Whispering in the Dark [4]
Category: Lore Olympus (Webcomic)
Genre: Anger, Bitterness, Guilt, LoreTober (Lore Olympus)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-21
Updated: 2020-10-21
Packaged: 2021-03-09 05:20:02
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,126
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27128455
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LateToThePartie/pseuds/LateToThePartie
Summary: Hecate tasks Thanatos with retrieving Demeter.Written for Loretober day 19 prompt: Love.Yes, it took me an extra day to get this out.
Series: Whispering in the Dark [4]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1975648
Comments: 2
Kudos: 30





	What You Won't Do For Love

Love. He’d done what he’d had for love, or at least what he thought was love, but he wasn’t really the winged god to know. All Thanatos did know was that his love for Minthe had driven him to do unspeakable acts. Love was crazy. Love was terrifying. Love was blind – well, maybe that wasn’t so true after all. Thanatos realized that isolation had changed his definition of love and that loneliness had twisted him into a bitter and decrepit version of himself. The god of the dead always thought he had the worst job in the world but if he’d lived a day as the god of death, he’d think otherwise. 

Such were his thoughts as he descended into Tartarus where his mother dwelled. So long had it been since he visited Nyx that the path was etched into his memory as a faded dream. He didn’t really have any distinct memories just associated emotions he didn’t particularly care to indulge at the moment.

Walking towards the edge of dark nothingness, Thanatos waited for his mother to rise up. Shortly, five red eyes materialized in the mist followed by a broad, toothy grin. “Thanatos, my son! I’d be flattered that you came to visit me, but I think you have ulterior motives.” She pointedly stared at the helm of invisibility nestled under Thanatos’s left arm.

Thanatos didn’t smile, not to be cruel, but because it was too difficult to do so, to move past the feelings she had – inadvertently – created within him. He could feel them creeping in the back of his head, threatening to break through, making his acts of contrition as painful as his crimes. “I don’t have much time, mother. I have been tasked with bringing Demeter back to the Underworld.”

Nyx laughed and rested her head on her hand, her face very close to her son. “I know why you’re here. That little traitor has caused quite a commotion, hasn’t she? Not that I’m complaining. Who doesn’t love a little darkness in their life?”

Thanatos shrugged and said, “It was Persephone who committed the act.”

“Hmmm…if you have children one day, you might understand,” she said as she extended a finger and brushed a loose lock of his hair back. “Have you thought about cutting your hair? A more clean-cut look might attract – ”

Thanatos smiled wryly and held up a hand, “Getting a haircut like Hades isn’t going to get the god of death a girlfriend.” _This is actually the worst,_ he thought, _worse than when I had to endure that drive with Apollo._

Her smile dimmed a little, and she corrected him, “The god of _gentle_ death.” There was an awkward little pause and then she said, a little quietly, “I can bring you to her.” She extended her blue-black hand and he stepped into her palm, affixing Hades’s helm on his head. Almost instantly he was enveloped by a cool black mist and her hand disappeared around him as the surroundings seemed to melt and twist into something different. 

Thanatos blinked and when he opened his eyes, he was in the mortal realm in the dark of night. Fortunately it was a new moon, so there would be little light to observe the crime he was about to commit in the name of future justice. Somehow phrasing it like that in his head didn’t make him feel any better. Looking around, he tried to get his bearings: he was just outside a window in a sprawling complex which must’ve been a local ruler’s estate.

Peeking inside the window, he observed an older woman gently cradling a baby in her arms, sitting in front of a fire; although she sat, he could tell she was very tall. Her hair was black and her skin bronzed, the flames of the fire casting a warm glow over her features. He observed her actions, her kind smile never failing even as she leaned the child into the flames. Thanatos was very alarmed by this and began to look for a way in to save the child when he realized that the child did not cry or struggle. Cocking his head to the side, he stared at the woman and nearly collapsed when he realized it was Demeter. She was disguised as a mortal, working as a nursemaid no less! Feeling for the phial in his pocket, Thanatos looked for the quietest way into the room even as he began to take deep, even-measured breaths. This was going to be so much harder than the fates-tape mission earlier.

Creeping around the perimeter as quietly as he could, he stood outside the door – so close and so far away! Cursing his luck, he sat down on the ground just to the side of the entrance and crossed his legs, waiting for Demeter to leave or someone to show up. Thanatos was happy for the time, for it allowed him to calm his breathing and trembling hands. He just wasn’t cut out for this stealth spy stuff.

After the adrenaline had worn off, he felt his eyes begin to get heavy and he struggled to stay awake, the time between blinks stretching out. Several times, the god of death nearly gave in to the urge to lay down, but that would almost certainly ensure he’d be discovered. 

Finally, the door swung open. Instantly, Thanatos was hyper-alert and standing. A younger woman, presumably the mother, was smiling and saying something to Demeter as she took her baby back. Contented, Demeter stood just outside of her little domicile waiting until they were out of sight before turning back in and pulling the door shut. Inside, Thanatos was already waiting for her, the little phial slippery in his clammy hands. Demeter intimidated him in the way that Hades used to, before Thanatos grew tired of him. Once again, he was struck at how similar Demeter was to Hades and he wondered if Persephone even realized this as she shamelessly pursued the king of the Underworld. What kind of love was that they shared? Did no one else seriously see this?

He remained plastered to the back wall watching as she resumed her spot in front of the fire, this time staring into the embers motionless for several minutes before he heard her quiet sobs. “I failed you! I failed you!” was all she uttered, barely audible. Uncorking the little phial, he walked towards her as quietly as he could and was almost at her side when she suddenly threw her head up and spun around to look behind her. “Who’s there!” she hissed into the empty room. “I know you’re there. Whoever you are, I will make you regret spying on me.”

Thanatos clenched his teeth in a grimace and then stopped and rolled his eyes. What was she going to do to him anyhow? He was the god of death. He lived in the Underworld. His existence was already pain. When she turned her face back to the fire, he took advantage of the position and tossed the liquid onto her. Thanatos quickly stood back as she rose and advanced in his direction. He tried to sidestep her, but Demeter was too quick, blindly reaching out into the space in front of her and feeling his himation. Pulling on it roughly, she caused Thanatos to stumble backwards and fall flat on his back, the helmet rolling off just enough to lose efficacy.

Demeter’s eyes were fire and her chest heaved as she stood over the trembling god of death. “Thanatos?! I didn’t realize you were working for Zeus now. Or is Hades doing his brother’s bidding by sending his death-dog after me?” She reached forward with sharpened nails to grasp his shoulders, but he rolled away, grasping at the helmet at he struggled to get away from her. 

He stumbled to his feet and replaced the helmet on his head, disappearing out of sight. Demeter snarled, “Coward, just like Zeus. You can tell that tyrant he’ll have to collect me himself. I’ll make him pay for what he’s done to my daughter and me.”

Thanatos said nothing, but inside he wondered what Demeter’s reaction would be when she realized he would be bringing her to the Underworld. 

Demeter looked around, wild-eyed, and stalked off towards the door which was opposite to where Thanatos was, swiping her arms angrily in the air. He would’ve breathed a sigh of relief, but he knew she’d hear him. She laughed bitterly and said, “If you think a little mortal village is bad, wait until you see the horror I will visit upon the entire realm. You’ll be collecting souls for that greedy boss of yours until there are none left to harvest.”

Thanatos let her vent, patiently waiting for the potion to work. How long was this supposed to take anyhow? He should’ve asked Hecate for the details, but he knew he wasn’t one to always think things through. That was how he got there, right?

Demeter laughed again, but the edge of bitterness was gone, and her laughter quickly turned into sobs. She stumbled forward and collapsed on her hands and knees in front of the fire. “I have no idea how things went so wrong. All I ever wanted was the best for Kore. I wanted to protect her from the evils of the world and now she’s at the mercy of the worst of it.”

Thanatos felt his chest tighten. He’d never really seen Persephone as an innocent girl. He supposed he’d never really seen her at all, just as a fragment of a woman, bits and pieces cobbled together from his own admittedly limited interactions with them. Was she innocent? She’d killed an entire village. To those mortals, she was evil, or at the very least a terrifying force. And there was something in the way she spoke that made him think of the ways his own mother had tried to mold him into something else under the guise of maternal protection. She _wasn’t_ a helpless little girl no more than he was a helpless little boy, but Thanatos didn’t really know who she was at all. Did that mean she deserved to have her worst moment revealed to Zeus for punishment? Not knowing her had made it easier for him, but he knew it wasn’t right.

Demeter was wearing out, he could tell, the earliest stages of resignation settling into her features. Thanatos knew it was the potion, but he’d seen that look countless times before in the mortals facing their end. “Hecate, right? She gave you whatever it was that you dosed me with? And to think, I let her stay with me, actually thought she had my daughter’s best interests at heart.”

That, Thanatos _did_ know. “She does have Persephone’s best interests in mind.”

Demeter’s head snapped around to the far corner of the room, but she made no effort to move from her spot. She was weakening, her will to fight crumbling under the weight of the magic coursing through her veins. “You know, Zeus is going to make us suffer. He never forgave me for telling him no, for telling him he couldn’t hide his nymph lovers on my estate anymore.”

Thanatos was unsurprised. He couldn’t remember the last time he’d willing engaged with the king of the gods, choosing to avoid the agitation of Olympus as much as possible. 

Demeter sneered, “And where was justice when he burned my fields down for it? It wasn’t just my bottom line he hurt. Nymphs died. Mortals – the elderly and children – perished because there wasn’t enough food. I couldn’t grow it fast enough to replenish. I-I failed them.” 

He’d never heard of the incident. Thanatos wondered when this had happened and if Zeus had gone directly to Hades to cover it up, or if he’d hid it some other way? Questions for another day, he told himself.

With a grunt, she heaved herself up and said, “Well, let’s get this over with.”

Thanatos pulled his helmet off and examined her from the darkness of the corner. She could barely make out his presence there. He said, “I have to take you to Hecate.” Demeter made no acknowledgement of the statement, didn’t question her destination in the Underworld. Thanatos quietly walked towards her and gently grasped her hand, his face as serious as it always was when he took a mortal soul away. He usually flew the recently deceased back to the Underworld because it was less tiring than teleporting, but this time Thanatos knew he’d have to bring her straight to Hecate’s office. He said something he hadn’t uttered to a mortal in centuries: 

“It’s going to be OK.”

And then they were gone.

**Author's Note:**

> I took the title from the song of the same name just because I like the song and had been listening to it recently. It has nothing to do with the story.


End file.
